Filmmaker: Stephen Richardson
AFS Film Representative: Bernard Friedman (Producer)
Runtime: 82 min
Bogalusa Charm is a contemporary portrait of a small Louisiana town created at the site of the world’s largest lumber mill. Captured here in its last days after thirty years, Miss Dixie Gallaspy conducts a charm school for girls in order to teach the young women of Bogalusa the social graces and skills that would guide them into “Ladyhood”. Dixie’s week-long school, in a town confronted with many challenges (including a legacy of racial conflict and financial dissipation), preserves fragments of a world that may already be lost. Director and native son Steve Richardson finds the many charms of this close community and introduces us to the culture and deep conventions that help define life in an isolated but storied place firmly located in the American South.
About the Producer
Bernard Friedman is the founder and creative director of the documentary production company, Flying Mind. He directed the short film “American Homes”, produced the feature documentary “Bogalusa Charm” which premiered at Slamdance 2017, and is an executive producer for “Bending the Arc” which premiered at Sundance 2017. He directed and produced the documentary feature “N of 1”, an inquiry into the nature of innovation as understood through the story of a novel approach to cancer, which premiered at Cinequest Film Festival 2018.